A fantastic JRPG. Played it on Vita and it was such a well-done game that I had very few issues with. The story is very well handled. The characters are a joy to watch. The combat is fun, strategic, and engaging. The dungeons while all samey, offer up a fun classic dungeon crawler style. The music is like sex to my ears. I couldn't ask for a better game. This PC port offers higher frame rates, 4k support, steam cards, ect. All of this for $20. If you still have not bought this, what are you doing?
I also finished my new game plus of this game on PC after transferring over my Vita save. I feel now more than ever I can give my full opinion on this game and the port itself. If you want my TLDR, here it is:
Persona 4 Golden is not perfect, but damn is it near that line. The PC port is not without its issues, but this is a great way to experience this classic.
Story:
This is one of the game's strongest aspects. It provides such an engaging murder mystery story. Everything just fits so perfectly together. Everything just makes... sense. It's like a perfect puzzle that slowly gets clearer the more you put it together. the theme of facing the truth rather than running away from it is a huge focus of this story. Everything pretty much focuses around that theme. And while that may be somewhat annoying to players, i found it to be very well handled. that's because the theme is a very good one and a lot of things are done with to make it constantly refreshing. However, this story is not without it's flaws. Mainly, the pacing. For a good chunk of this game, not a ton happens. that's not to say the story completely stops or anything, but it moves rather slow. Now the final portion of the game is where shit starts to really hit the fan with the amount of stuff going on, and that can get kinda confusing, but it is very exciting. I would be more mad about the pacing of the story, but the game fills these slow moments with a lot of character interactions. So it's not a big deal. Although I would have liked for both to move together at a more consistent pace.
Characters:
I love them. I love them all. The main cast, the side characters, the villian(s). They all have such great chemistry, reasons to do the things they do, and struggles that appear genuine. Everyone here feels like real, relatable people. The main cast feel like such close friends with actual flaws. They are not perfect. You'll laugh a lot when they talk together. Heck, maybe you'll even cry. Just... everything about them transcends them to be more than just pixels on a screen. They feel real.
Marie is a character added in Golden. And without spoiling anything, she's kinda meh. Her story and character are just kinda there. I don't hate her, but I feel that if you removed her, nothing much of value would be lost.
Gameplay:
P4G is a social sim/ JRPG. Half of this game you hang out with friends, go to school, ect. The other half is full of dungeon crawling and turn based combat. For the social sim aspect, it's done to near perfection. I'm constantly moving around my schedule, just seeing as to who I can hang out with today. Should I hang out with Yoksuke? Maybe Kou is free? exams are next week, should I study to raise my knowledge? Just great shit.
For the JRPG aspect, things are a less bit perfect. The act of turn based combat is still fantastic though. Fusing personas, leveling up, the loot after a battle, the strategies that come into fighting. It's great stuff. So are the boss battles. ALL of them were fantastic and constantly had me rethinking my strategy. Dungeons are randomly generated and this is where the problem lies. They're all just kinda... boring? I struggle to call them terrible. While they all have their own unique themes, they're all hallways and square rooms while very rarely changing it up. the beginning portion of a dungeon is always fresh and fun, but after a while, you kinda get bored and just start to wanna find the stairs. A lot of these negative points are done away with if you break your dungeon crawling into multiple days however.
Music:
Fuck yes.
Final Thoughts:
All in all, I stand by my first paragraph. I LOVE this game. So much so that I completed it twice in the span of two months. I hope you take into consideration of what I said. This game is incredible and for $20, you cannot go wrong this beautiful game.
I also finished my new game plus of this game on PC after transferring over my Vita save. I feel now more than ever I can give my full opinion on this game and the port itself. If you want my TLDR, here it is:
Persona 4 Golden is not perfect, but damn is it near that line. The PC port is not without its issues, but this is a great way to experience this classic.
Story:
This is one of the game's strongest aspects. It provides such an engaging murder mystery story. Everything just fits so perfectly together. Everything just makes... sense. It's like a perfect puzzle that slowly gets clearer the more you put it together. the theme of facing the truth rather than running away from it is a huge focus of this story. Everything pretty much focuses around that theme. And while that may be somewhat annoying to players, i found it to be very well handled. that's because the theme is a very good one and a lot of things are done with to make it constantly refreshing. However, this story is not without it's flaws. Mainly, the pacing. For a good chunk of this game, not a ton happens. that's not to say the story completely stops or anything, but it moves rather slow. Now the final portion of the game is where shit starts to really hit the fan with the amount of stuff going on, and that can get kinda confusing, but it is very exciting. I would be more mad about the pacing of the story, but the game fills these slow moments with a lot of character interactions. So it's not a big deal. Although I would have liked for both to move together at a more consistent pace.
Characters:
I love them. I love them all. The main cast, the side characters, the villian(s). They all have such great chemistry, reasons to do the things they do, and struggles that appear genuine. Everyone here feels like real, relatable people. The main cast feel like such close friends with actual flaws. They are not perfect. You'll laugh a lot when they talk together. Heck, maybe you'll even cry. Just... everything about them transcends them to be more than just pixels on a screen. They feel real.
Marie is a character added in Golden. And without spoiling anything, she's kinda meh. Her story and character are just kinda there. I don't hate her, but I feel that if you removed her, nothing much of value would be lost.
Gameplay:
P4G is a social sim/ JRPG. Half of this game you hang out with friends, go to school, ect. The other half is full of dungeon crawling and turn based combat. For the social sim aspect, it's done to near perfection. I'm constantly moving around my schedule, just seeing as to who I can hang out with today. Should I hang out with Yoksuke? Maybe Kou is free? exams are next week, should I study to raise my knowledge? Just great shit.
For the JRPG aspect, things are a less bit perfect. The act of turn based combat is still fantastic though. Fusing personas, leveling up, the loot after a battle, the strategies that come into fighting. It's great stuff. So are the boss battles. ALL of them were fantastic and constantly had me rethinking my strategy. Dungeons are randomly generated and this is where the problem lies. They're all just kinda... boring? I struggle to call them terrible. While they all have their own unique themes, they're all hallways and square rooms while very rarely changing it up. the beginning portion of a dungeon is always fresh and fun, but after a while, you kinda get bored and just start to wanna find the stairs. A lot of these negative points are done away with if you break your dungeon crawling into multiple days however.
Music:
Fuck yes.
Final Thoughts:
All in all, I stand by my first paragraph. I LOVE this game. So much so that I completed it twice in the span of two months. I hope you take into consideration of what I said. This game is incredible and for $20, you cannot go wrong this beautiful game.